Honestly, did it even happen if you didn’t post it on your Instagram story? This platform in particular has been integral in publicizing our social circles and habits and consistently adds to the narrative that likes, followers, and influencers run our lives. For example, equating self-worth with the level of virtual engagement you receive with a post is something the majority of account holders fall victim to. If your most recent selfie didn’t garner the number of likes you deem appropriate, it’s not uncommon to remove it altogether. To pretend like it never even happened. Anything to avoid the reality that your followers may not have found that particular post very interesting. If I get 67 likes on a nice picture of me and my friends, and I have 279 followers, does that mean 212 people thought the image was garbage? No. And if it does, who cares. One a personal, individual level, it is very dangerous to think this way about yourself and the content you choose to make public.
On the other hand, this is exactly the kind of math institutions, influencers, companies, brands, etc. use to determine the level of interest followers have in their content and posts. There are numerous ways Business-labeled Instagram accounts can utilize reports and statistical data from the platform in order to cater to the needs and preferences of it’s audience. Libraries can benefit from this opportunity as well. Instagram is a very visual social media platform. This is not the time to post rant on the kid who keeps taking your book displays down when no one is looking. This platform’s best attribute is that the first thing you see on a post is not the caption or who posted it, but the image itself. If that image is appealing, interesting, funny, thought-provoking, or anything in between, the follower might like it. Once they like it, they look at the account that posted it. Then, perhaps click further and read the comments and EVEN might comment as well. That is music to a social media manager’s ears. One idea to get this kind of one-two punch engagement on an Instagram post is by posting an image of your librarians all holding up their current summer read in front of their face like they are reading it at that moment. It’s fun, quirky, and maintains the privacy of the librarians without appearing standoffish. Caption the post with a question about what followers are reading and ask for them to comment and tag their summer reading buddy (friend or family member perhaps). This not only generates activity on the post, but also could win your account a few new followers. Need more ideas like this? Check out these articles and go follow other libraries on Instagram!

As you can see, there are pros and cons to this app in particular but the thing to keep in mind is that if you’re posting for your own benefit it should be fun and an activity that gives you joy or release. Not something that should make you feel less than. Libraries have the unique ability to capitalize on the benefits of Instagram and use it to broaden their virtual community. You can do the same!

Here are a few posts from my own Instagram account and one from a library that I follow: